Raymond's Message Board / Blog - Numbers: How old? How long? How much? How many?

Name: Raymond T. Kaya
Date/Time: 2009-01-25 at 19:18:46 HST
Subject: Numbers: How old? How long? How much? How many?
Times Read: [371] since 2009 January 25
Body:

         Some numbers naturally change with the progression of time. A couple of examples:
  1. a person's age
  2. the number of months/years a person has worked at a job

    Other numbers only matter to those keeping "score":

  3. the length of time it takes a person to walk from point A to point B
  4. the price one pays for a service
  5. and this recently: the number of Web sites a person has


         Some people quote such numbers at the drop of a hat - as if continually updating the numbers in their heads.
  1. I don't focus on this, don't normally have an ready answer to the question "How old are you?" - even if it were the asker's business. The usual way I arrive at this is to recall the year of my birth, subtract this from the current year, and adjust for the current month - a fairly involved process. I try not to do this too frequently, as I prefer occupying my thoughts with (to me) more important things. I feel as young as I did 10, no, 20 years ago... Those who feel their age (or older) probably constantly remind themselves of theirs.
  2. Similar to the "age" question - but probably important to be able to answer when applying for employment elsewhere. I once read something like (paraphrasing): "For some people, 10 years of experience is just 1 year repeated 10 times."
  3. When I say I walk to work on Sundays, some people immediately ask, "How long does it take you?" (or "How many miles is that?")... I don't know why this should matter - I'm not competing with anyone, don't time myself... and they have no plans to walk along with me...
  4. Unless I choose to share this, is generally no one else's business - especially if they're merely curious, have no plans to do something similar... but even so, it's my choice whether or not to share.
  5. My first reply was, "It depends on how you count them." ... But then, when asked, then pressed, "How do you count them?", I answered honestly, "It doesn't matter." ... and it really doesn't...


I understand that people are using numbers to (try to) "understand", sometimes just to make "conversation"... As applied to me, I'm sure they (numbers) do little to foster understanding of me... As for conversation, I'd much rather focus on other things... Numbers have their place(s), but I often choose not to participate in other people's obsessions, er, I mean, "mindsets".

Here's a different slant on numbers as applied to people: Statistics vs. the Individual
Raymond T. Kaya
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
www.reikialoha.com/raymond
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